My wife and I limit ourselves to modest small gifts. She got me, among other things, a new pair of pot holders - we seem to go through them about once a year. I got her an assortment of teas to try and a newish book by Laura Calder, 'The Inviting Life' about the niceties of entertaining (she is a Canadian cookbook author and TV personality).

The one thing that she got for me that I didn't immediately understand was this (my first comment was that I didn't think it would fit, but then she told me what it was for):

Does anyone know if these things actually will ripen an avocado overnight?

Haven't opened gifts yet so if I have food-related items awaiting me, I don't know them yet.

The avocado sock--no. But it would probably work--it's just a cute version of the paper bag that captures whatever gasses hasten the ripening process. I wouldn't expect overnight though. Best to just buy an avocado or two every couple days and always have one ripening and/or available. I buy 4 or 6 at a time. We eat a lot of avocado here!

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

One of my favourite gifts from prior years was a hand made chess board. I know the work that sort of thing takes! Unfortunately I lack an opponent these days.

My wife 'found' a couple of small presents she had forgotten about - some duck rillettes and pate she had stashed in our second fridge. Planning on a nice glass of pinot and some duckage and quackers in front of the fire this afternoon!

Howie, thanks for the opportunity but it's only fun when you get to have a glass when you win - we've tried that where loser goes without and winner drinks a glass. It tends to even out the chess skill after about a bottle!

I used to play duplicate bridge and noticed that if anyone happened to be imbibing, their bids got more and more aggressive (and they usually lost).

Bill Spohn wrote:Howie, thanks for the opportunity but it's only fun when you get to have a glass when you win - we've tried that where loser goes without and winner drinks a glass. It tends to even out the chess skill after about a bottle!

I have a collection of odd chess sets and one of them has all the pieces as small wine (or whatever) glasses, where every time you capture a piece, you're supposed to drink the piece you captured.

Aside from what I bought myself, I got a range of truffle-related products: oil, mustard, honey, salt. Initially I was suspicious but it seems the purchaser went to a reputable outfit: The Truffleist, who uses real truffle slices instead of synthetic crap.

And the smell is certainly very very strong from the unopened package. We fly home tomorrow and I'll probably start using the products with tomorrow night's dinner. But hopefully we don't run into problems with sniffer dogs at the airport!

Same here. I've waited all year for that Chia Head dammit, and no plate of rubbery scrambled eggs is gonna keep me from getting it!

Speaking of which... we made a huge scramble of a couple eggs and all the whites leftover from my ice cream making. Not really my thing -- His Squashy Majesty likes whites-heavy eggs more than I do -- but I had a hellatious time cleaning that pan afterward. No idea what happened... just a huge gluey mess.